Sports teams using Vine

Sports teams using Vine

You’ve probably all heard of Vine by now, the video-sharing app which was released last week by Twitter which lets users record and share 6-second looping video clips. It gives the option to either record 6 chronological seconds of video or tap-record, to create an animated gif-like looping video.

The introduction of Vine could be great for the sports industry. It offers great creativity for making video content and on the native iPhone Twitter app, users can watch a posted Vine video in the Twitter card without leaving the app, which makes watching easy.

Vine includes hashtags like Twitter, to allow users to easily tag and categorise their Vines, as well as having geolocation capabilities, which offers fans and teams the abilities to tag their videos with locations. It could be a great way to give insights into the behind the scenes nature of sporting organisations as well as for fans to geotag their videos from arenas and stadiums around the world.

Southampton FC

Teams on Vine without posting

As it currently stands, there are quite a few teams on Vine that have registered but are yet to post. Amongst these teams, the Boston Celtics, New York Giants, Melbourne Storm, Collingwood Football Club and Sporting KC are registered, as well as recent Twitterer Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

We’re eagerly awaiting their first Vines, as well as the rest of the sporting world to sign up and start posting clips.

Tips for Teams using Vine

A quick list of tip for sports teams on using Vine.

Handles: As it stands, Vine users don’t have handles like on Twitter, but as handles are great identifiers for accounts, it would make sense for Vine to put this into action eventually, so linking the official team Twitter account with the Vine account will help when handles start being claimed.

Hashtags are still important: Hashtags are important on Vine just as they’re important on Twitter, so start tagging your Vines with the official team hashtags and encouraging fans to do so too, if they are making team-specific videos.

Geolocation tagging: Vine offers geolocation tagging, so tagging your location of the video, specifically at arenas and stadiums, will be a great way to get fans to share some good Vine videos and makes them easy to locate.

Audio capabilities: Vine videos have motion and audio, so that is something to be aware of when filming. Anything said in close proximity to the phone being used to film the video will end up on the video.

Fan interaction: Just like favouriting and other fan interaction techniques on Twitter, Vine offers similar methods to engage with fans. It’s easy to search for your hashtag appearing on videos as well as geotagged posts from a stadium or arena and simply liking the fan-made video and/or following them.

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Dion is a former behind-the-scenes man for @SportsGeek.
You can read his blog posts on topics like Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest on SportsGeekHQ.com; his posts are regularly picked up by popular #Sports newsletters.
Dion worked with for clients like Select Australia and Sydney Thunder as well as rolling out Digital Cheer Squad implementations for Sports Geek clients.
He now works at the @AFL managing social media for the biggest league in Australia.